Ohio State Beats Northwestern in Big Ten Opener

Sunday, December 7

Evanston, Ill.

2:00 PM

Ohio State

7-1,1-0Big Ten

Northwestern University

6-3,0-1Big Ten

Ohio St.

Northwestern

Photo by: Ohio State Athletics

Ohio State Beats Northwestern in Big Ten Opener

12/7/2025 4:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Kennedy Cambridge recorded her 100th career steal and Kylee Kitts scored a career-high 18 points in the win.

EVANSTON, Ill. – The No. 23/24 Ohio State women's basketball team (7-1, 1-0 B1G) beat Northwestern (6-3, 0-1 B1G) by a 79-70 margin in Sunday's Big Ten opener in Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Northwestern ended the opening quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 16-10 lead after 10 minutes. After trailing by as many as six points early in the second quarter, the Buckeyes scored the quarter's final 11 points to take a 33-25 lead into the locker room. Both teams' offenses were firing in the third quarter, but the Buckeyes had a 28-22 advantage in the quarter to increase their lead to 61-47 after 30 minutes. Scoring was capped at 79-70.

Kennedy Cambridge reached 100 career steals with four steals today and also tied her career-high assists. Jaloni Cambridge was the first Buckeye in double figures, doing so midway through the second quarter and finishing with 22 points. T'yana Todd (13) and Kylee Kitts (career-high 18) also scored in double figures. Elsa Lemmilä recorded a season-high nine rebounds.

Quarter-by-Quarter Recap

Q1: Northwestern opened scoring after more than two minutes of stout defense by both teams. Back-to-back fastbreak layups from J. Cambridge gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game at 6-4. The teams were tied with each basket they made until the Wildcats ended the quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 16-10 advantage into the second quarter.
Q2: Todd made a pair from the line to get Ohio State on the board first in the second quarter. The Buckeyes cut their deficit to one at 23-22 with a jumper from Lemmilä just past the midway point of the quarter. J. Cambridge tied the game at 25 with 3:21 remaining in the half and Ava Watson's three pointer gave Ohio State the lead. The Buckeyes ended the half with an 11-0 run to take a 33-25 lead into the locker room.
Q3: Kitts opened second-half scoring with a jumper. Northwestern made back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Ohio State lead to 35-31. The Buckeyes responded with an 11-2 run to extend their advantage to 46-33 with six minutes remaining in the quarter. Neither team scored more than five points down the stretch and the Buckeyes led by a 61-47 margin after three quarters of play.
Q4: Kitts tallied the Buckeyes' first seven points of the quarter as Ohio State led by a 68-51 margin with 7:33 to play after a three-point play. The teams traded points for much of the fourth quarter as each team had four and five unanswered points. Northwestern scored the final seven points to cap scoring at 79-70.

Game Notes

Kennedy Cambridge recorded her 100^th career steal today. She finished the game with four steals, on pace with her conference-leading average this season. K. Cambridge also tied her career-high six assists.
Jaloni Cambridge has scored in double figures in all eight games this season. She was the first Buckeye in double figures today and finished with 22 points. This is J. Cambridge's fourth game of the season with 20 or more points.
T'yana Todd recorded her third double-figure scoring performance of the season with 13 points. This is the 63^rd time in her career that she's totaled at least 10 points.
Elsa Lemmilä totaled a season-high nine rebounds to lead the game.
Q1: J. Cambridge led the Buckeyes with six points in the frame.
Q2: The Buckeyes held the Wildcats scoreless for the final 4:41 of the quarter and scored the quarter's final 11 points during that time. Ohio State outscored Northwestern 23-9 in the quarter.
Q3: Ohio State made all nine of its free throw attempts in the quarter and shot 50 percent (9-of-18) from the field.
Q4: The Buckeyes held a double-digit lead until the final minute.

Up Next

Ohio State begins a five-game home stand with Northern Kentucky on Thursday for a 6:30 p.m. tip off. The game will be broadcast live on B1G+ and AM1460. It is the student appreciation game with a T-shirt giveaway to the first 500 Ohio State students (with a BuckID).

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